Monday, November 10, 2008

Sometimes the
internets tubes get clogged, and numbers that ought to work, don't.
Today was such a day, with major news networks and information sources
being bamboozled by a stuffup in somebody's datafeed.

I caught it just as I was preparing to start Ranting on
today's OzRant; fortunately I had been keeping a close eye on a futures
platform, so I knew that the data that came out of the RantMachine was
wrong.

Take a gander at this Yahoo page... notice the column of red
numbers for the Australian indices... it's WRONG. My datafeed initially had the same numbers - which stuffed up all the calculations in the normal Rant tables.

Importantly, it made me aware of one thing that is a trap for
young players when it comes to extracting data: don't rely on the data
provider to furnish change and percentage change numbers. It's far
better to use a (very) slightly slower algorithm that calculates change
and percentage change using the fresh 'levels' data and the prior day's
levels data (which is stored in my database, obviously).

If you get all three numbers (level, change and percentage
change) from one source, you have no freedom from error and
no prospect of checking.

I had already learned that lesson with respect to index volume
(i.e., total shares traded within a given index); the numbers furnished
by data providers are almost always wrong - and not by small amounts.
So I started calculating the index volumes myself, using trade data for
index components (and updating the component lists every day).

Anyway... it's not going to kill anybody to see the wrong
change numbers, but it is the reason that I have had to dispense with a
lot of the auto-generated tables (I spent an hour trying to build them
by hand when I calculated the right numbers, but I ran out of steam...
so the text below is somewhat abridged, but all the changes and percentage
changes are correct.

Major Market Indices

The broad market - the All Ordinaries (XAO)
- rose reasonably solidly, posting a gain of 53.4 points (1.33%),
finishing at 4060 points. The index hit an intraday high of 4111.1 just
after 1:15pm, while the traded low for the day was 4044.1 - set at
10:20 am Sydney time (from now on, I am not counting lows that occur in
the first ten minutes, when the bulk of the stock in the market aren't
open)..

Total volume traded on the ASX was 1.2bn units, 7% below its
10-day average of 1.3bn shares.The ASX's daily listing of all stocks
included 1068 different 3-letter FPO's which traded (i.e., had non-zero
trade volume). Of these, 415 issues rose, with volume in rising issues
totalling 619.5m units; there were 417 declining stocks, which traded
aggregate declining volume of 415m shares.

Of the 493 All Ordinaries components, 226 rose while 187 fell.
Volume was tilted in favour of the gainers by a margin of 1.9:1, with
564.58m shares traded in gainers while 297.39m shares traded in the
day's losers.

The Index that forms the cash basis for the SFE's Share Price
Index Futures - the S&P/ASX 200 (XJO)
- registered a gain of 56.4 points (1.39%), closing out the session at
4107.8 points.

The "heavy hitters" of the Australian market - the ASX
20 Leaders (XTL)
- added 22.8 points (0.93%), closing out the session at 2464.6 points.

The 21 stocks which make up the index traded a total of
163.41m units; 11 index components rose, with rising volume amounting
to 99.41m shares, while the 9 decliners had volume traded totalling
62.49m units. The major percentage gainers within the index had a very
'resource-y' feel

RIO Tinto (RIO),
+$5.73 (7.93%) to $78.00 on volume of 2.1 million shares;

BHP Billiton (BHP),
+$1.96 (7.02%) to $29.89 on volume of 15.9 million shares;

Newcrest Mining (NCM),
+$1.50 (6.92%) to $23.19 on volume of 1.2 million shares;

Stockland (SGP),
+$0.25 (6.49%) to $4.10 on volume of 5 million shares; and

Woodside Petroleum (WPL),
+$1.41 (3.54%) to $41.21 on volume of 1.4 million shares.

On the less salubrious side of the big-cap fence, the losers
were very 'bank-y':

Commonwealth Bank Of Australia (CBA),
-$2.07 (5.17%) to $38.00 on volume of 9.6 million shares;

Suncorp-Metway. (SUN),
-$0.35 (3.95%) to $8.50 on volume of 2.9 million shares;

ANZ Banking Group (ANZ),
-$0.39 (2.39%) to $15.90 on volume of 15.8 million shares; and

St George Bank (SGB),
-$0.64 (2.27%) to $27.61 on volume of 1.3 million shares.

At the other end of the market-cap spectrum lie the denizens
of the ASX Small Ordinaries (XSO)
- the place where non-mania excess returns lie. The small end of the
market significantly outperformed its large-cap counterpart. The Small
Ords advanced by under a percent, adding 34.7 points (1.81%), closing
out the session at 1944.4 points.

The 207 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 238.78m units:
volume in the 108 gainers totalling 154.12m shares, with trade
totalling 63.19m units in the index's 76 declining components. The
major percentage gainers within the index were

GICS Industry Indices

Among the 11 industry indices, 9 registered an advance for the
session, the remaining 2 lost ground.

Top of the index leadership stakes was Materials (XMJ),
which gained 542 points (6.15%) to 9369 points. The 45 stocks which
make up the index traded a total of 178.58m units; 33 index components
rose, with rising volume amounting to 151.52m shares, while the 8
decliners had volume traded totalling 19.86m units. The major
percentage gainers within the index were

PanAust Ltd (PNA),
+$0.04 (17.39%) to $0.27 on volume of 21.2 million shares;

The wooden spoon went to Financials ex Property Trusts
(XXJ),
which slid 106.2 points (2.34%) to 4423 points. The 29 stocks which
make up the index traded a total of 103.19m units; The 13 decliners had
volume traded totalling 69.21m units, and 14 index components rose,
with rising volume amounting to 27.43m shares, The major percentage
decliners within the index were